You think two defensive extras and one forward extra? I'd be very surprised at that right now. If the entire defense was healthy, I could see it, as all 8 defenders are NHL-caliber. But what's the sense of having Richmond as a healthy scratch -- especially when Bissonnette can fill in as a defender if the team was in need.

You think two defensive extras and one forward extra? I'd be very surprised at that right now. If the entire defense was healthy, I could see it, as all 8 defenders are NHL-caliber. But what's the sense of having Richmond as a healthy scratch -- especially when Bissonnette can fill in as a defender if the team was in need.

This is quite possibly the most useless hour I've ever spent in the computer lab. I consider WW more productive than this.

I should go look at my last 15 or so posts, i'm sure they are all pretty worthless. I feel a lot less lazy right now though because I just scheduled an interview, so I shouldn't be expected to do anything until then.

You think two defensive extras and one forward extra? I'd be very surprised at that right now. If the entire defense was healthy, I could see it, as all 8 defenders are NHL-caliber. But what's the sense of having Richmond as a healthy scratch -- especially when Bissonnette can fill in as a defender if the team was in need.

Good point. Add in Pesonen then.

I bet they carry 8 defenders to sweden, regardless of Bissonnette. The top 3 lines are solid enough that they could easily play with only them. They should only carry one extra forward.

Idoit40fans wrote:I bet they carry 8 defenders to sweden, regardless of Bissonnette. The top 3 lines are solid enough that they could easily play with only them. They should only carry one extra forward.

I'm not as much worried about capability but about potential injuries.

You're playing with fire if you carry one extra for 12 forwards and 2 extras for 6 defensemen. If two forwards get hurt -- which isn't that unlikely of a scenario -- it's a long haul from Wilkes-Barre to Finland and Sweden to summon a call-up. Since the defense is half the size of the offense, to me, it makes more sense to carry half of the number of reserves that you would for offense.

Idoit40fans wrote:Thats what I'm saying, they can get by losing a couple forwards to injury, they can't get by with 2 defenders getting injured.

I'm playing the odds game here, and not worrying about anything else.

If you have 12 forwards and 6 defensemen dressed each game, it's more likely that 2 forwards would get hurt than 2 defensemen, since there are twice as many.

This is why I think it's important for a guy like Bissonnette to make the team, at least for the Europe trip, as he would serve as an offensemen, but could shift to defense if injury dictated such a move.

side note: Tyler Kennedy needs to find the back of the net this year. he was everywhere last year and if he can chip in more, or really anyone on 3rd and 4th line...this is still a super solid hockey team, and some might say it looks better on paper than last year.